Mindfulness for Stress

Do you remember the last time you went to bed at night, and you couldn’t sleep because thoughts were swirling inside your mind? And by the way, when was it when you drove to your destination and when you parked you didn’t remember the journey? Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

These as common examples from our daily lives when we operate on autopilot and we are not present. Our wandering mind is pulled away by our thoughts, leaving us being “ghosts” in our own lives. Research shows, in fact, that the more our minds wander, the less happy we are. The foundation of happiness is mindfulness. 

Mindfulness practice has been going on for thousands of years, but it’s lately that scientific research has shown how useful it is to manage anxiety, stress, loss, depression, and pain, helping people manage a wide range of physical conditions and their general wellbeing. However, it’s not only for those who feel stressed or ill, but it can help anyone to be more awake and live a healthier and happier life. You don’t need to take this course only when you are stressed. Actually, it might be better to take it when you are more at ease, so as to acquire the skills you can apply when things get tough.

MINDFULNESS FOR STRESS PROGRAM

DURATION: 8 weekly sessions of 2 hours each. The course requires 10-20 minutes of meditation per day, in addition to some practice and light reading every week. There are group sessions open for the general public, and private group sessions scheduled independently. 

FEE: €200 via The Institute of ACS Athens

LOCATION: Online

LANGUAGE: English

Start: Contact the teacher directly

DESCRIPTION

SESSION 1: Learning to Choose

In our first session, we learn what is mindfulness and we appreciate the importance of direct, sensory experience, as a way to get out of our heads. We explore how mindfulness leads us out of the autopilot mode, and we distinguish between reacting and responding.

SESSION 2: Coming to Our Senses

As we learn to pay particular attention to the breath, we come closer to what is happening at the present moment. We learn the difference between the Doing and the Being modes of mind and we try to shift the balance towards the latter -the more direct experience of the world.

SESSION 3: Working with Thoughts

This week we learn to look at our thoughts rather than from them. We also gain a deeper understanding as to the life and role of thoughts, ending up to the understanding that not all thoughts are necessarily facts. This session includes some mindful movement as a way to become more aware of our bodies and our bodily sensations in everyday life.

SESSION 4: Working with Difficult Experiences

Thoughts with a strong emotional charge can be very difficult to let go of -they are calling for our attention. In this session we learn how to create a “small oasis of calm in the midst of the storm”, bringing awareness and acceptance to the situation, before responding creatively from a state of calm and seeing it change.

SESSION 5: Noticing the Good Things

Our experience is determined by what we pay attention to. In this session, we understand the evolutionary origins and role of the negativity bias, and we learn how to get a more balanced view of life by noticing small pleasures and things that are meaningful to us and can often go unnoticed.

SESSION 6: Kindness

Time has come to go a little bit deeper and explore the three “emotion regulation systems” at play in our everyday lives. We realize the importance of them being in balance, and as we acknowledge how often we downplay the system related to contentment, we sow the seeds for a more positive attitude towards others and ourselves.

SESSION 7: The Social Dimension of Mindfulness

Our mindfulness practice broadens to include other people in our circle of kindness. Being emotionally stronger we can even include people we find difficult, with a robust sense of kindness and care towards ourselves. As we develop self-kindness, we understand the danger of the exhaustion funnel, and we make a mindful choice to “rise up” the flourishing spiral and gain the inner freedom and happiness we deserve.

SESSION 8: The Rest of Your Life

In this final session, we celebrate our achievements, and we honor the tools we have gained to live the rest of our lives. We discuss how to sustain our practice, even when times are difficult. If there were any aha moments or ideas that changed the way we see our lives, then we give those some special attention, and we readily move on.

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